[geeks] Cheap Dell Servers

[Sridhar Ayengar]

Sandwich Maker wrote:
> " > What it does use the geometry for is attempts to compensate for
> " > head-switch delay, rotational latency, seek times, and the like.
> " > Things like ZBR, track caches, and drive-level reordering of requests
> " > invalidate most of the assumptions underlying these attempts anyway.
> " 
> " Yes, it uses it for all of those things, to optimize placement of new 
> " allocations to the proper cylinder groups, no?
> 
> yeah, but with zbr...
> 
> in the disks i know about, all the zones have the same number of
> cylinders.  suppose you make your fs cg size this same number?  you're
> screwed [for fs optimization], because your fs label can only assume
> all cgs are the same size, but the zones aren't.  there's no way to
> set sectors/track cg-by-cg, only for the whole disk.

Bleh.

I suppose this might render any optimization in the FS driver code for 
FFS somewhat irrelevant.

Peace...  Sridhar